y have their miraculous food provided before they
encounter the sterile desert. When they come to speak of their crushed
hearts, they have solaces to tell of too. Their language is, "I will
sing of _mercy_ and _judgment_!"

* * * * *

We may be led to inquire why a character so lovely as that of Lazarus
was not enlisted along with the other disciples in the active service of
the Apostleship. Why should Peter and Andrew, John and James, be
summoned from their boats and nets on Gennesaret to follow Jesus, and
this other, imbued with the same spirit and honoured with the same
regard, be left alone and undisturbed in his village home?

"To every man there is a work." Some are more peculiarly called to
active duty, and better fitted for it; others for passive obedience and
suffering. Some are selected as bold standard-bearers of the cross,
others to give their testimony in the quiet seclusion of domestic life.
Some are specially gifted, as Paul, to appear in the halls of Nero or on
the heights of Mars' Hill, and, confronting face to face the world's
boasted wisdom, maintain intact the honour of their Lord. Others are
required to glorify Him on beds of sickness, or in homes of sorrow, or
in the holy consistent tenor of their everyday walk. Some are called as
Levites to temple service; others to give the uncostly cup of cold
water, or the widow's mite; others to manifest the meek, gentle,
unselfish, resigned, forgiving heart, when there is no cup or mite to
offer!

Believer! rejoice that your path is marked out for you. Your lot in
life, with all its "accidents," is your Lord's appointing. Dream not, in
your own short-sighted wisdom, that, had you occupied some other or more
prominent position--had your talents been greater, or your worldly
influence more extensive--you might have glorified your God in a way
which is at present denied to you. He can be served in the lowliest as
well as in the most exalted stations. As the tiniest leaf or smallest
star in the world of nature reflects His glory as well as the giant
mountain or blazing sun, so does He graciously own and recognise the
humblest effort of lowly love no less than the most lavish gifts which
splendid munificence and costly devotion can cast into His treasury. Let
it be your great aim and ambition to honour Him just in the position He
has seen meet to assign you. "Let every man," says the Apostle, "wherein
he is called, therein abide